GOLDEN GLOBES: Celebrities start to arrive for the ceremony

Former world champ surfer Andy Irons dies

HONOLULU, Hawaii (AFP) – Former three-time world surfing champion Andy Irons has died at the age of 32, his father Phil Irons said.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but he withdrew from a surfing competition in Puerto Rico last weekend because of illness.

Irons on Tuesday was found dead in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas, where he was on a layover en route to his home on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Employees at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, found the body and called airport police.

Local public safety officials said the man had checked in on Monday and had died of unknown causes, and an autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.

A statement from Irons' family in Hawaii, posted on the website of the Association of Surfing Professionals, said Irons "had reportedly been battling with Dengue Fever," although it remained unclear if Irons actually had that illness.

In their statement, the Irons family thanked the surfer's friends and fans and requested privacy "so their focus can remain on one another during this time of profound loss."

Irons is survived by his wife, Lyndie, who is expecting their first child in December.

Animal lovers mourn death of giant stag in Britain

LONDON – Who shot the Emperor?

Nature lovers are mourning the death of a red stag dubbed the Emperor of Exmoor — a nine-foot (2.75 meter) giant reported to be the biggest wild animal in the British Isles. He was found dead soon after his picture appeared in the national press.

His size set him apart from the herd, but also made him prize prey for hunters willing to pay handsomely for such a majestic trophy.

"With a set of antlers such as this deer had, it was basically going to kill him in the end," said Richard Austin, the photographer whose images of the stag appeared in newspapers earlier this month — inevitably accompanied by the word "majestic."

"He was his own worst enemy, I suppose, Austin told the BBC Tuesday. "Growing that big and that huge and that magnificent, he was a definite target."

For the 12 years of his life, the Emperor roamed Exmoor in southwest England, a wild swathe of heath and woodland that has drawn hunters for 1,000 years.

Mystery surrounds his demise, reported by the local press and national media including the BBC. He is reported to have been shot two weeks ago near a main road linking the towns of Barnstaple and Tiverton.

Details of the stag's death and the location of its body could not be independently confirmed. In most cases the hunter — for a fee — takes the antlers and head as a trophy. The landowner keeps the carcass, which often ends up being sold for meat.

Austin said he deliberately did not reveal the Emperor's exact location.

Local people were speculating furiously Tuesday about the identity and nationality of the hunter: was it an American, a European, or a wealthy Briton who saw the picture and decided he wanted those magnificent antlers on his wall?

"Whoever has got the trophy is going to keep pretty quiet about it, because it has stirred the most awful furor," said Peter Donnelly, a deer management expert in the Exmoor area.

A former royal hunting ground, Exmoor is popular with local hunters and with wealthy outsiders, who jet in to stalk red deer — Britain's biggest land animal.

They pay landowners for the right to hunt on their land and take away sets of antlers as trophies — or for a higher fee the whole head. If done during the hunting season, which runs from August through April, it is perfectly legal.

Hunting is a divisive issue in Britain, where the traditional practice of chasing down animals with packs of hounds was outlawed in 2004 — though with enough loopholes that hunting carries on pretty much unimpeded across the country.

Supporters say it is a vital part of the rural economy, but hunting is bitterly opposed by some animal lovers.

Douglas Batchelor of the League Against Cruel Sports said it was "morally repugnant" to shoot animals for sport.

But animal conservationists say hunting helps maintain the health of the deer herd. The animals have no natural predators, so thousands are legally hunted every year to keep numbers in check.

Michael Yardley of the Shooting Sports Trust said killing older deer like the 12-year-old Emperor made sense.

"A deer past this age may properly be shot, and, indeed, should be shot, to allow younger fitter beasts into the harem, and also because it may well die of starvation as its incisors deteriorate," he said.

Donnelly, no opponent of hunting, said it was wrong to shoot the Emperor during the rutting season, when the strongest stags compete to mate with the choicest female deer.

"He was still in his prime. He did not need to be culled," Donnelly said. "There's plenty of rubbish stags out there that could be shot and would do nothing but improve the quality of the herd."

Thailand calls emergency meeting as tensions rise

BANGKOK — Thai officials Saturday called an emergency cabinet meeting as a top think-tank warned the stand-off between the government and "Red Shirt" protestors could deteriorate into an "undeclared civil war".

Deputy premier Suthep Thaugsuban, in charge of national security, told reporters the meeting would be held at a Bangkok military base on Sunday to analyse how to cope with the protest rallies that began in mid-March.

While tensions increased in the capital, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said Thailand must consider mediation help from other countries to avoid a slide into further violence.

"The Thai political system has broken down and seems incapable of pulling the country back from the brink of widespread conflict," the ICG report, which was released late Friday, said.

"The stand-off in the streets of Bangkok between the government and Red Shirt protesters is worsening and could deteriorate into an undeclared civil war," it added.

Thailand is reeling from its worst political violence in almost two decades in the capital, where 27 people have died and nearly 1,000 injured in a series of clashes, but the government has rejected suggestions of outside mediation.

The country's Department of Special Investigation said it seized bullets, grenade parts and official government security documents Saturday in a raid on the Bangkok apartment of one Red leader, Suporn Attawong.

However Jatuporn Prompan, another core Red leader, used an evening news conference to accuse authorities of planting the material.

The demonstrations are the latest chapter in years of turmoil pitting the ruling elite against the Reds, who say the government came to power illegitimately in 2008.

Many of the Reds come from Thailand's rural poor and urban working classes and support former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and now lives overseas to avoid a jail term for corruption.

Protest leaders on Saturday slammed management at a Bangkok hospital, saying its chaotic evacuation of patients after it was stormed by Red Shirts was a ploy to make the protesters look bad.

The Reds have faced heavy criticism after about 100 supporters raided Chulalongkorn hospital Thursday evening under the mistaken belief it sheltered security forces preparing a crackdown, following deadly street violence.

The 1,400-bed hospital evacuated most of its patients because of the incident, and Red leaders have apologised profusely.

"The hospital did not hear our apology. They dramatised the evacuation of patients, turning it into a tragedy to paint Red Shirt people as bad," Red leader Jatuporn said.

The Reds, who have occupied sections of Bangkok for over a month in their bid to force snap elections, claim the hospital was used in an April 22 grenade attack on a pro-government rally that killed one and wounded dozens.

The government said the grenades were fired from inside the Reds' camp -- an accusation the movement has denied.

Thailand's Medical Council criticised the storming of the hospital and asked protesters to respect medical personnel, while police were deployed at the hospital to ensure neither security forces nor Reds use the grounds.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva vowed to prosecute those who were involved in the hospital incident.

Thai television reported Princess Chakri Sirindhon went to Chulalongkorn Saturday to visit one of its last patients, 96-year-old Patriarch Prasangkaraj, and suggested that the country's ailing head Buddhist monk switch hospitals.

New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Saturday calling for all sides to "negotiate a political solution before the situation escalates".

"Thailand is spiralling further into political violence as protesters, counter-protesters, and security forces respond tit for tat against attacks and provocations," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Some 70 bomb and grenade attacks have been carried out by unknown parties in Bangkok since the Reds began street protests in mid-March, according to the rights group.

French plonk scam spreads to world's top wine group

PARIS — One of the biggest scandals ever to hit the wine trade spread on Thursday after it emerged that Constellation Brands, the world's top wine group, bought some of the fake French pinot noir sold in tanker-loads to the United States.

Constellation's implication in the massive transatlantic swindle was revealed in court documents seen by AFP after 12 French wine-makers and dealers were convicted Wednesday of passing off cheap wine as pinot noir to US clients.

The US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, part of the US Treasury Department, confirmed that Constellation bought some of the wine made from cheaper syrah and merlot grape varieties.

"We are aware of Constellation's receipt of some of this wine and will determine an appropriate course of action following our review of the (French) court documents," spokesman Arthur Resnick wrote in an email to AFP.

The US federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said its agents were not yet involved in the affair because the fraud had not yet not been shown to be on US soil.

But a spokeswoman said the ATF would investigate Constellation and E & J Gallo, another US wine giant that bought the fake pinot, if it were alleged that that they were aware of the fraud and then sold the wine to US consumers.

Constellation spokeswoman Cheryl Gossin said the group could not immediately confirm that it had bought any of the fake wine and said it was checking its records and would try to confirm or deny the matter later Thursday.

She said that the pinot noir it is currently selling is from 2008 and was shipped in 2009, noting that the court case concerned earlier vintages.

The court documents seen by AFP said Sieur d'Arques, a trading company fined 180,000 euros in Wednesday's ruling, sold a "significant quantity" of fake pinot to Constellation and E&J Gallo.

Gallo said after the court verdict that it had bought less than 20 percent of the falsely labelled pinot noir and was no longer selling any of this wine to customers.

It had sold it under the popular "Red Bicyclette" Pinot Noir label.

Pinot noir became hugely popular in the United States after the 2004 film "Sideways" about two friends who go on a wine-tasting trip of self-discovery in California.

The court in southwestern France handed out suspended jail terms and fines to the 12 people for selling 18 million bottles (135,334 hectolitres) of fake pinot noir.

The convicted included executives from wine estates, cooperatives, a broker, wine merchant Ducasse and the Sieur d'Arques group.

The judge told a packed courtroom in Carcassonne that the accused made seven million euros (9.8 million dollars) in profits from the scam, with Ducasse raking in 3.7 million euros and Sieur d'Arques 1.3 million euros.

"The scale of the fraud caused severe damage for the wines of the Languedoc (region) for which the United States is an important outlet," he said.

The fines he imposed ranged from 1,500 to 180,000 euros, while the suspended jail sentences went from one to six months.

Jean-Marie Bourland, a lawyer for Sieur d'Arques, did not rule out an appeal. "Not a single American consumer complained," he argued.

The wine trade is not new to fraud.

In 2007, French Beaujolais producers were caught dosing their wine with sugar, while in 2005, South African Sauvignon Blanc was doctored with fake aromas.

A 1985 case revealed that Austrians had spiced up their cru with a substance also found in antifreeze.

Canada's mini-Madoff fraudster pleads guilty

MONTREAL — A Canadian financier on Friday pleaded guilty to swindling nearly 50 million dollars (46 million US) from investors, said local media.

Bertram Earl Jones was accused of carrying out a pyramid scheme that bilked investors by using new financial injections to pay older clients, much like the multi-billion-dollar scheme orchestrated by disgraced Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff.

He entered a surprise guilty plea to two fraud charges in a Montreal courtroom on Friday morning, and is to be sentenced on February 15, said broadcaster CTV.

According to police and Quebec's securities regulator, Jones scammed at least 158 investors, mostly pensioners in Quebec, but also in other parts of Canada and in the United States.

The scam was uncovered after anxious customers contacted the regulator saying they were unable to reach Jones, who went on the lam for two weeks before his arrest in July.

Jones and his financial services firm have since been declared bankrupt and his wife has filed for divorce.

Madoff was jailed in June for 150 years for "extraordinarily evil" crimes in the largest investment fraud in US history.

Govt. vows action with US on Yemen, Somali extremism

LONDON — Britain and the US will step up action to fight extremism in Yemen and Somalia, Downing Street said Sunday, amid investigations into an alleged Al-Qaeda plot to bomb a US airliner.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama, who accused Al-Qaeda over the plot for the first time Saturday, also wanted to see a bigger peacekeeping force in Somalia to tackle violent radicalism in the region, officials said.

"Downing Street and the White House have agreed to intensify joint US-UK work to tackle the emerging terrorist threat from both Yemen and Somalia in the wake of the failed Detroit terror plot," a statement said.

"Amongst the initiatives the PM has agreed with President Obama is US-UK funding for a special counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen."

It added: "In Somalia, the PM and President believe that a larger peacekeeping force is required and will support this at the UN Security Council."

The announcement came two days after Britain called a London meeting of world powers on fighting extremism in Yemen, where a Nigerian in custody in the US over the foiled December 25 plot is thought to have been trained and equipped by Al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab insurgents in Somalia control large swathes of south and central parts of the country and have wrested control of much of the capital Mogadishu, attacking government and African Union peacekeepers.

The US said last week that it was sharply increasing its military and economic aid to Yemen.

Brown and Obama have discussed what to do about the situation in a series of phone calls since the alleged plot was uncovered and believe more support for Yemen's coastguard is also needed, the statement added.

Brown will also ask that the situation be discussed by the European Union and push for tougher action on Yemen from the Financial Action Task Force, an international body tackling money laundering and funding for violent extremist groups.

He is also to hold a meeting of a special committee featuring leading members of his Cabinet to discuss Britain's response to the alleged plot.

On Friday, the British premier called a London meeting of international powers on Yemen on January 28 and announced a review of airline security here which could see the use of full body scanners in British airports.

He added that the Detroit incident, which Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of carrying out, showed terrorism remains a "very real" global threat as the world enters a new decade, eight years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.

"Enemies of democracy and freedom -- now trying to mastermind death and destruction from Yemen as well as other better-known homes of international terror such as Pakistan and Afghanistan -- are concealing explosives in ways which are more difficult to detect," he wrote in an article on the Downing Street website.

"Al-Qaeda and their associates continue in their ambition to indoctrinate thousands of young people around the world with a deadly desire to kill and maim.

"Our response in security, intelligence, policing and military action, is not just an act of choice but an act of necessity."

Ahmadinejad dismisses US deadline for nuclear deal

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's president on Tuesday dismissed a year-end deadline set by the Obama administration and the West for Tehran to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The United States warned Iran to take the deadline seriously.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also accused the U.S. of fabricating a purported Iranian secret document that appears to lay out a plan for developing a critical component of an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad's remarks underscored Tehran's defiance in the nuclear standoff — and also sought to send a message that his government has not been weakened by the protest movement sparked by June's disputed presidential election. He spoke a day after the latest opposition protest by tens of thousands mourning a dissident cleric who died over the weekend.

Late Tuesday, the Web site of state-run television said Ahmadinejad had appointed a new chief of Iran's prestigious Art Academy, removing opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from the post.

Mousavi, a presidential challenger who alleged voting fraud, had attended Monday's funeral procession. There was no immediate comment from Mousavi.

President Barack Obama has set a rough deadline of the end of this year for Iran to respond to an offer of dialogue on the nuclear issue. Washington and its allies are warning of new, tougher sanctions on Iran if it doesn't respond.

The U.N.-proposed deal is the centerpiece of the West's diplomatic effort. Under the deal, Tehran would ship most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium abroad to be processed into fuel rods, which would ease the West's fears that the material could be used to produce a nuclear weapon.

Iran, which denies it seeks to build a bomb, has balked at the deal's terms.

The international community can give Iran "as many deadlines as they want, we don't care," Ahmadinejad said in a speech to thousands of supporters in the southern city of Shiraz.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the threat of sanctions, saying Iran wants talks "under just conditions where there is mutual respect."

"We told you that we are not afraid of sanctions against us, and we are not intimidated," he said, addressing the West. "If Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be brave enough to tell you."

As the crowd cheered: "We love you, Ahmadinejad," the Iranian leader lashed out at Washington, vowing Iran will stand up against U.S. attempts to "dominate the Middle East."

The U.S. responded sternly. "It is a very real deadline for the international community," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the international community was "united in its resolve that Iran must either answer the questions that we have about its nuclear aspirations or face additional pressure."

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview with the Associated Press and APTN it was "premature" to discuss possible new U.N. sanctions against Iran, but added that the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany "are considering a wide range of alternatives."

In Paris, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the chances of finding a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran were "never very significant" and that in the "worst case," France will bring up the issue of new sanctions on Tehran.

In a separate interview with ABC News, Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. of forging the document that appears to describe an Iranian work plan for developing a neutron initiator, a key component in detonating a nuclear bomb.

"They are all a fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government." He said the accusations that Iran seeks a weapon has "turned into a repetitive and tasteless joke." The comments were aired Monday night.

The memo was first reported in the British newspaper Times of London. U.S. officials have said it's unclear whether the document is real.

In his speech Tuesday, Ahmadinejad also shrugged off Iran's continued political turmoil since the disputed June election. Large street protests have continued despite a fierce government crackdown. In the latest, tens of thousands turned out for the funeral of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died Sunday, and chanted slogans against the country's rulers.

Ahmadinejad said the West mistakenly believed that Iran "has been weakened."

"The people of Iran and the government of Iran are 10 times stronger than last year," he said. "I want the whole world to know it's impossible for Iran to allow the United States to dominate the Middle East."

Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said there was a fissure in Iranian society and the U.S. is concerned about a crackdown on the opposition.

"The government is pushing by the various means that are available to it, including the use of various security forces, to kind of put this genie back in the bottle. And it is increasingly difficult for them to do that," he said.

Iran says its nuclear program is intended only to generate electricity and that it has a right to proceed with uranium enrichment, which the United Nations has demanded it suspend. The process can produce low-enriched uranium used to fuel a nuclear reactor — or higher enriched uranium, which is the basis for building a nuclear warhead.

Under the deal brokered by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency last month, most of Iran's low-enriched uranium would be shipped abroad, where it would be enriched further to produce fuel rods. The rods would then be returned to Iran for use in a research reactor in Tehran, but it would not be possible to enrich them further to a high enough level to build a bomb.

Iran's response has been unclear, with officials floating a number of alternative ideas for a swap — including carrying out the exchange simultaneously or in stages. At times, Tehran has threatened to reject it outright and enrich its own fuel rods, though last week Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran was still open to the idea of an exchange.

Associated Press writers Jenny Barchfield in Paris and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Study suggests greater sea level rise from warming

NEW YORK — Global warming in this century might raise sea levels more than expected in future centuries, says a study that looked at what happened at a time when Neanderthals roamed Europe.

Unless global warming is curbed or expensive measures are taken to hold back rising water, the projected sea level rise could submerge about one-third of Florida, southern Manhattan, much of Bangladesh and almost all the Netherlands, for example, researchers said.

An expert praised the work but cautioned that such projections can't be made with precision.

Earth naturally alternates between ice ages and warmer times, due to changes in the tilt of the planet and its orbit around the sun. It is now in a warmer spell that began some 10,000 years ago. But scientists say that man-made, heat-trapping gases are driving the warming beyond the natural amount.

Warmth can raise sea levels by expanding water volume and melting huge sheets of ice in Greenland and Antarctica. To get an idea of what future warming might do to sea levels, scientists at Princeton and Harvard universities looked at Earth's last warm period, which peaked some 125,000 years ago. It's sometimes called the Eemian stage.

During this time, Neanderthals lived in Europe and elephants roamed what is now southern Britain and New York state. Lions prowled and hippos bathed in France, Spain and Italy. But such animals were different species from their cousins in Africa today, adapted to different temperatures.

So what happened to sea level during the warm Eemian stage? Previous studies have estimated that the global sea level was maybe 13 feet to 20 feet higher than today.

The new work, reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, says it almost certainly peaked at more than 22 feet higher than today. In fact, it probably rose between 26 feet and 30 feet, researchers concluded.

Temperatures at the North and South Poles — critical for triggering ice melt — could return to Eemian levels again if the global temperature rises about 4 degrees (2 degrees Celsius), the researchers said.

Scientists project that without concerted action, as is now being discussed in Copenhagen, Earth could add that much heat in this century from the buildup of greenhouse gases.

If the polar regions once more reach Eemian-like temperatures, the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica "are at risk of large-scale disintegration," said Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton, an author of the study.

"We may be locking in this (future) event by the temperatures we reach this century," said Oppenheimer in a telephone interview from Copenhagen.

He said it's not clear how long such temperatures would have to continue in the future to set off large-scale melting; it could take centuries or a much briefer time, he said.

Nor can the study tell how fast the water rose per century during the Eemian, said Robert Kopp of Princeton, another study author. It estimates a rate of about 20 to 30 feet per 1,000 years.

The researchers estimated Eemian sea levels by looking at data from fossil corals and ancient sediments from nearly 50 sites around the world.

"It's a very impressive piece of work," said Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University, who didn't participate in the study. "I really don't expect this is going to be the last word (about the Eemian) ... but I think this is the best word at this point."

He cautioned that scientists can't yet predict what happens to ice sheets at given global temperatures. But he said the work confirms that "ice sheets are vulnerable to warming, and it doesn't take very many degrees to really change the size of an ice sheet."

On the Net:

• Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Once upon a time in faraway China there lived two brothers, one named Sam, and one named Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako.

Now one day the two brothers were playing near the well in their garden when Sam fell into the well, and Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako ran to his mother, shouting, "Quick, Sam has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"

"What?" cried the mother, "Sam has fallen into the well? Run and tell father!"

Together they ran to the father and cried, "Quick, Sam has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"

"Sam has fallen into the well?" cried the father. "Run and tell the gardner!"

Then they all ran to the gardner and shouted, "Quick, Sam has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"

"Sam has fallen into the well?" cried the gardner, and then he quickly fetched a ladder and pulled the poor boy from the well, who was wet and cold and frightened, and ever so happy to still be alive.

Some time afterward the two brothers were again playing near the well, and this time Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako fell into the well, and Sam ran to his mother, shouting, "Quick, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"

"What?" cried the mother, "Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well? Run and tell father!"

Together they ran to the father and cried, "Quick, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"

"Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well?" cried the father. "Run and tell the gardner!"

Then they all ran to the gardner and shouted, "Quick, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"

"Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well?" cried the gardner, and then he quickly fetched a ladder and pulled Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako from the well, but the poor boy had been in the water so long that he had drowned.

And from that time forth, the Chinese have given their children short names.

---

• Source: I heard this story in the 1940's from my mother, Elgarda Zobell Ashliman, who learned it about 1927 in Rigby, Idaho, from Ruth Harper, a schoolteacher. I do not know whether Ruth Harper learned the story from a published book or from oral tradition.

• A more recent retelling of this Chinese folktale is Tikki Tikki Tembo, retold by Arlene Mosel, illustrated by Blair Lent (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1968).

• This tale follows the pattern of the traditional chain story "The Death of the Little Hen," in which a chicken chokes on a nut, then dies while its partner is seeking help from first one source and then another (Aarne-Thompson type 2021A).

• Link to additional chain tales.